Shirley Valentine, a story about a middle-aged house-wife whose life couldn’t be more mundane; she has no one but the wall to talk to. Shirley Valentine, written by Willy Russell, is one of his most famous screenplays. This essay will look at how Russell invites the audience to sympathise with Shirley through his use of language, ideas and themes, the effects of dramatic devices and characters in the play. Russell uses characters and their actions to invite us to feel sympathy for Shirley. The way she is treated by her family and especially Joe makes the readers feel compassion for her. ‘It’s nearly six o’clock get on with gettin’ me tea.’ is one example of the way Shirley is treated badly. ‘get on with’ is a very commanding phrase; it shows how Joe bosses Shirley around. Using this phrase is very effective because the audience realises straight away how Joe’s character is and his opinion on women and their role. He also says ‘me tea’ (me meaning my in his local accent). This suggests to the audience that their marriage isn’t very strong as he doesn’t say ‘our’ tea. It also shows that Joe doesn’t seem to be in a very close relationship with Shirley. Also the fact that Shirley is calm and uses humorous language to fight back makes the reader still more sympathetic towards her. This is very clever technique used by Russell as behind her humour is her loneliness and her emotions that she keeps to herself. I think that the quote shows Joe as being very dominant, however he is right to ask for it as he has been working hard for the whole day and is probably hungry. He was probably looking forward to his steak and Shirley did not do him any favours by giving his tea to the dog even though she was just trying to help the dog. Maybe ... ... middle of paper ... ...y towards her, while in some places the audience are happy for her as she finally manages to gain happiness. The ending is completely different to kitchen sink drama because we see a speck of hope for Shirley in the end while in kitchen sink drama the ending would usually have been sad. In conclusion, Russell uses many devices to invite his audience to sympathise with Shirley. He relates to the society’s concept on different aspects of people’s life and most of the audiences could relate to situations in the screenplay. Russell’s own life has influenced a lot of things that went on in the play. Russell’s working class background has helped a lot of Shirley’s problems look realistic as he himself had experienced many of these problems that Shirley faced. This has made the text very effective and that really helped gain sympathy from the audience towards Shirley.
The characters address the audience; the fast movement from scene to scene juxtaposing past and present and prevents us from identifying with particular characters, forcing us to assess their points of view; there are few characters who fail to repel us, as they display truly human complexity and fallibility. That fallibility is usually associated with greed and a ruthless disregard for the needs of others. Emotional needs are rarely acknowledged by those most concerned with taking what they maintain is theirs, and this confusion of feeling and finance contributes to the play's ultimate bleak mood.
Firstly let us consider conflict. In each act of the play, we see the overpowering desire to belong leading to a climax of conflict amongst the characters, which has the consequence of exclusion. Conflict is a successful literary technique, as it engages the audience and focuses our attention on the issue of conflict and exclusion, brought about by the characters’ desires to be accepted by their community.
The play shows how Eva Smith is a victim of the attitude of society in
The play focusses on three generations of Women, Nan Dear, Gladys and Dolly and where they felt as though they belonged. Nan Dear knew where she belonged and that was the humpy in the flats with her daughter and granddaughter. Nan Dear knows that she won't be accepted into white society just because she is an Aboriginal and those of a different colour or foreign country weren't accepted. Gladys and Dolly both wanted to be accepted into white society, they wanted to feel as though they belonged there.
Stoppard was a long established playwright by this time; hence classical references will be more understood and even expected in a play about a classicist. With its star writer and subject matter, the audience of the play is therefore going to be made up of a number of certain types, from scholars, poets, and members of society that frequently use the theatres. However, Stoppard does take time to eloquently explain certain principles and scholarly cruxes to a layman audience. The fact that he is a popular playwright would have also attracted the audience to attend the play. To open this play to an audience that is more interested in the writer than the subject, as well as non-classicists, Stoppard uses characters of Houseman’s life to be ignorant to the audience, so they can ask questions for them; such as, in Jacksons dual role as Loved One of Houseman and mouthpiece of the audience.
It was very nice to read something that had a lot of drama and suspense. This story has a mix of everything. It has a bit of suspense, drama, and comedy; therefore, it led it to be a very nice play. The people that would most like this play, has to be people who like suspense, drama, and thriller. These people would like it, because this story has a mix of everything, so the people who like to have a mix in their stories, they will love this story. It will suit them, and will give them a pleasure of reading a nice
Someone who has poor mental health has symptoms that are also known as depression. People feel that without forgiveness they will never be good enough in life. The study showed that self-compassion and the relationship between lack of forgiveness and depression drastically changed. The relationship was stronger for those who had low self-esteem. “Globally, depression is a common mental illness and one of the leading causes of disability at all ages (World Health Organization (WHO), 2015.)” (Halvorsrud 170). This article is related to Death of a Salesman because Willy believed his family would always be there for him regardless of his actions. At the end of the play when Willy passed away no one showed up to his funeral. At the beginning of the play he was cocky. Willy told his sons about all of the friends he had and how much he was appreciated. Throughout the play he slowly becomes confused and depressed throughout the play driving his family away. Today, medicine has been developed in order to help this condition, but during this it wasn’t as common. Historical criticism plays an important role in this article because during the time period the play was written in affects how Willy’s depression was handled. If Willy would have had the medicine we have today his life might have been
When Pip is on the road to becoming a gentleman, many thoughts of negativity towards others are established in him. Pip feels he has more power over people who are in a lower social class than him. When Joe, Pip's brother-in-law, comes over to London to visit Pip, Pip thinks, "I could hardly have imagined dear old Joe looking so unlike himself or so like some extraordinary bird" (100). Joe's appearance and poor manners disgust Pip, which displays how Pip is being domineering over a person t...
The interplay between Loureen and her friend Florence set the tone for the play with their back and forth dialogue that Nottage uses to address a contemporary issue with empathy and humor. The subject matter of Poof! (domestic violence) is serious but is presented in a manner that is often comedic in tone infused with realism and the fantastic. We know that domestic abuse is very serious and I think Nottage used the dialogue between the two characters to bring a humorous tone to this issue. The death of Samuel gives rise to much of the humor in the play, as Loureen attempts to explain to Florence something she herself does not understand. In the exchange between the two friends when Florence asked Loureen where the body is? You can see the comical, imaginative, realism, and fantatisic in the way they talk to one another. For example “Loureen points to Samuel's pile of ashes, Florence asks, “You burned him?” I DON’T KNOW! replies Loureen, “Either you did or you didn't, what you mean you don't know? We're talking murder, Loureen, not oven settings (Nottage 1088).” In the exchange you can see the elements that Nottage used to make the interaction between them come alive. In another exchange between Loureen and Florence about calling the police to report Samuel missing you can feel the emotion and empathy that Nottage used. As seen in the quote “what are you going to tell them? about all the times they refused to help you? about all the nights you slept in my bed because you were afraid to stay down here? or the time he nearly took out your eye? (Nottage1093) you feel the tone of empathy between the two friends. Nottage applies a lot of imagery and fantastic that really engage the audience, it is like you are watching the scenes happen. For example, another theme in the play is friendship. Nottage uses literary devices to grab and hold the audience. The use of
A book or a theatrical play can become the means through which writers can express their thoughts and convey their messages to society. In ancient times, Greek tragedies were a clever way for writers to judge the political world of the time, and make society reflect back on its own behavior and way of acting. Throughout the years, the form of a theatrical play underwent many changes that allowed the writers to express themselves more freely, without being limited to the strict rules of form and structure of a Greek tragedy. Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit is a story that is set in the modern era of post-war Europe. A woman, whose life, through an ugly series of events, is ruined, returns to her hometown to get revenge for the misery
Tennessee Williams’ excellent use of themes to portray characters in his world class, classic play “The Glass Menagerie” makes the play enthralling till the very end of it. Out of many themes like loneliness, illusions and distress; disintegration of the family seems to be a major plot of the play. Undoubtedly, all the themes displayed in “The Glass Menagerie” are as much important for the success of the play which keeps the audience indulged into it throughout. Nature and lifestyle of each character plays a vital role in creating events and setting the theme of the story. From an ambitious, energetic and hard-working young man, Tom to a physically challenged and unsociable girl, Laura; many qualities of a human being have been portrayed in
Joe treats Pip as an equal despite their obvious age gap. Nevertheless, Pip also believes that Joe is an equal and expresses “I always treated him as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal” (10). Joe never scolds Pip like Mrs. Joe does or is authoritative in anyway. Consequently, Pip admires Joe as a younger brother would not as a son admires a father. This can be seen when Joe warns Pip that Mrs. Joe is upset at him because he has gone off on his own for a long time. This is often something done between siblings. As a child my older siblings would constantly warn me if my parents were upset so I could avoid getting in trouble. This conveys how Joe considers himself somewhat of a child. For Joe to warn Pip about Mrs. Joe he must also be scared of her when she is upset. When my siblings use to warn me, they did it because they have experienced the wrath of my parents and didn’t want me to also experience it also. Joe also states that “she’s got Tickler with her” (10) to let Pip know the severity of his punishment. To warn someone of something you must know the capability of the thing that you are warning them off. Joe is certain to warn Pip of the “Tickler”, a stick that Mrs. Joe beats them with, because he knows the pain it can
William Shakespeare has provided some of the most brilliant plays to ever be performed on the stage. He is also the author of numerous sonnets and poems, but he is best known for his plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. In this essay I would like to discuss the play and movie, "Romeo and Juliet", and also the movie, Shakespeare in Love.
Mrs. Joe, a character in the novel, Great Expectations, is a prime example of how a woman should not have acted during the Victorian time period. Mrs. Joe does not have the appearance that a Victorian woman was supposed to portray. In fact, “Far from being described as buxom, or maternal, she is tall and bony” (Ayes 1). Throughout the novel, Mrs. Joe is conveyed as taking over the masculine power in the relationship with her husband, Joe, and that he has portrayed the sense of the feminine part. Instead of being called by her Christian name, which is never revealed, she is called Mrs. Joe in order to show readers that her masculinity is present by her taking Joe’s name for herself. Not only does she let off a sense of masculinity this way, but she is also the one who does the disciplining of Pip in the novel. Pip acknowledges her authority by explaining that she has “…a hard and heavy hand and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand” (Dickens 5)...
Joe's actions are those of a true gentleman. For example, Joe defends Mrs. Joe from Orlick even though he is scared of Orlick himself: "What could the wretched Joe do now...but stand up to his journeyman...so, without so much as pulling off their singed and burnt aprons, they went at one another, like two giants" (773). Joe is intimidated by Orlick and by Joe defending Mrs. Joe from Orlick shows that Joe has courageousness. Joe is a benevolent person by stepping up to Orlick to help Mrs. Joe. In addition, Joe pays off Pip's debts and Pip finds "a receipt for which they had been paid off" (899). Joe paying off Pip's debts shows he is a helpful and caring person. Joe is being considerate by helping Pip become debt-free. It is ironic that Joe helps Pip because Pip hasn't been a considerate person to Joe but he helps Pip regardless.